


Undefeated

by Runespoor



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Multi, shippy parading as gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-11
Updated: 2010-09-11
Packaged: 2017-10-11 16:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runespoor/pseuds/Runespoor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto and Sakura lose one battle. Jiraiya and Tsunade believe they're losing a war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Undefeated

In another life Sasuke dies with Sakura's hands over his heart and putting every single drop of her chakra into healing him – but it's no use, because the seal on Sasuke's neck is pulsing and leeching away at his life, reimbursement to the umpteenth degree for every time Sasuke was lent power, to Orochimaru who is in not such a great shape – though such a better shape than Sasuke right now – not too far away and who apparently preferred to exchange the Sharingan for the certainty that he will live to regret it.

Naruto is next to her, and he is mute, blank and pale with over-choking sorrow.

Tsunade and Jiraiya are there as well, standing a little to the side. They're tired – it's been hours since the Sannin's summons have disappeared – and they exchange a glance to confirm what each knows about their apprentices; Sakura and Naruto are out of the fight now.

Tsunade can't fight if Dan just died, so Sakura won't be able to either, and as for Naruto, they'll be lucky if they don't need to stop him as well, when he loses control over the Kyuubi. Better to knock him out ahead, and Tsunade makes a step toward the two teens.

But Sakura is not Tsunade, has never been Tsunade, so she stands up and hauls Naruto to his feet – the two Sannin can see the effort in Sakura's muscles as she pulls him up, she's not using chakra there. And Naruto has already lost Sasuke an innumerable amount of times, so the red chakra seeping and surrounding him is tight and controlled.

Orochimaru's soft laughter carries over very well.

Orochimaru is dramatic like that. Jiraiya was the one who gave him the idea, once upon a time. (_Can't you ever act like you're feeing something? We just made it alive and you exploded her into tiny sticky bits! You've got to be feeling something, even just disgust for how lame I was to get myself beaten by that woman, so just find your inner sadist and embrace it, or something!_)

Orochimaru's cacophonic caress of a laugh is saying that though it's his apprentice that died, he's not the one for whom it counts as a loss.

Suddenly they're running toward him.

Jiraiya or Tsunade shouts.

Orochimaru's smile is widening in a frightening inhuman fashion.

The moment before the first hit lands, his eyes are widening as well. The Sannin see it; it acts as a trigger after freezing them for a moment, but they couldn't tell you if it's because they want to be the one to put that look on their old teammate's face, because there's something vindicative about seeing Orochimaru with this expression, or because they're suddenly afraid of what Naruto and Sakura are planning.

There's a huge, screeching explosion before they're even half-way there. The blast blows the Sannin backward and they think incoherently that the swishing and rushing sounds more like one of Sasuke's techniques than anything Naruto or Sakura would pull off.

After the explosion they pick themselves up again, of course.

Their bodies are broken, bloodied, and burnt, but still recognisable enough, even if Naruto's eyes are red with the Kyuubi and his lips are pulled in a snarl that shows thick sharp fangs. Sakura is sprawled face to the ground, as if she'd been thrown there and was just about to push herself up again; the purse where she keeps her kunai and explosion tags is flat, empty, against her.

Between them, there's just enough space for a body.

What's left of Orochimaru takes much less than that.


End file.
